LONDON: Arab News has picked up three merit awards from The Society of Publication Designers as it continues its streak of recent accolades.
Saudi Arabia’s first English-language daily won two merit awards in the print category: a 2025 year-end opinion page on predictions for 2026 — featuring a dove holding an olive branch atop a globe-shaped hand grenade — and a spotlight page focusing on children’s education being caught in the crossfire of conflict, illustrated with a child-like hand-drawn image of books and students amid the bombs.
Arab News also received a digital merit award for its documentary marking the newspaper’s 50th anniversary.
Omar Nashashibi, head of design at Arab News, said: “It’s always an honor to win awards, especially in design competitions as prestigious as the SPDs. These awards wouldn’t be possible without the talented teams across Arab News, and the brilliant partners we collaborated with for our ‘Rewriting Arab News’ documentary and illustration for ‘The year that could be’ opinion piece.”
Founded in 1965, the SPD celebrates “anyone contributing to the creation of visual stories” and is dedicated to promoting excellence in editorial design, photography and illustration across print and digital platforms.
This year’s competition included entries from The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Wired, Eater, and The Economist.
The total number of accolades won by Arab News has now reached 163 under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Faisal J. Abbas, who has overseen the newspaper’s digital transformation.
Past recognition includes special projects such as Arab News’ 50th anniversary edition, “The Kingdom vs. Captagon” deep dive and the “Paris 2024 Olympic Games” special edition.
For more information about Arab News and its award-winning projects, visit https://www.arabnews.com/greatesthits.
